When I first started to play the guitar it wasn't until a few months later that I got the knock off Stratocaster in tune. Of course that did not stop me from plucking the strings now and then.

I started off practicing picking the strings because everything else sound really bad. I didn't have a huge musical influence back then. Only what I herd on the radio and a few old records that a swiped from the parents. I did not own and Cd's or tapes but the music channels were starting to get big on TV. I started to listen to

lot of blues guitar.

There was something about that muddy dirty playing that just sounded so good to me. Of course I had no idea how they got their guitars to sound like so, what is the word...bluesy.

My amp was a brand called Kustom and the amp was for a bass guitar. The person at the music store was about a helpful as I would have been back then too. By that I mean they didn't know shit about guitars, the right amps to use or which way the exit was.

Despite the amp being made for a bass I managed to figure out how to get that dirty sound I wanted to play and I turned it up as loud as I could.

Eventually I got the guitar tuned and started using a practice some tabs that were in a how to play guitar book to learn some notes and chords. One thing I passed up were lessons, the biggest mistake that inadvertently created some great results.

The whole play guitar with your ear thing was just odd to me. I mean really Jimmy Hendrix played with his teeth because he had to keep the audience watching him but playing with your ear was just out of the questions.

Like many of you I learned to play a few three chords songs first. Starting with the A chord learning the D chord next and of course the E chord. Bam, all of the sudden I started learning the pentatonic scale.

This was it, this was the scale that I have been seeking. The great blues guitar scale. I knew this because it matched many of the songs I listen too that had this sound. Robbie from The Doors is a master at playing this great sound. Of course I had to start learning some of his licks and tricks. His style was so all over the fretboard with great ease.

I took a wrong turn, and got stuck in a rut with my playing. I loved this scale so much that is all I played for years. Because of this I am now just breaking free and expanding this great scale and that is where I am now. Learning the rest of the guitar fretboard.

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